meep-mop-moop

"Hey! Gula!" an unmistakably cute voice shouted, interrupting Maisee's conversation with her friends. With a roll of her eyes, she turned towards the speaker and cocked her head to one side in a gesture of condescending innocence. Ryeleigh and Felishia also turned to see Missy standing across the plaza, barely contained rage visible in her one good eye, the other covered with an eye patch. “Yes gula, I'm talking to you,” continued Missy, maintaining her distance across the plaza. “Today my honour will be restored!” Ryeleigh saw Maisee drop the innocent act almost immediately, her expression quickly changing to one of annoyed boredom. With a sigh, Maisee replied, “again? How many attempts to 'restore your honour' will this be?” For all she milked the cute act for all it was worth, Maisee's tongue was sharp once her patience had been exhausted, “thirty times? Forty? Or is it fifty already? Are you that eager to get another beating because Maisee is not eager to give it to you. Maisee

“You...” Missy's shock at seeing Maisee step from the shadows quickly contorted her face into one of barely contained mirth. It was the least cute Teiree had ever seen Missy be. “Seriously? You're our secret weapon?” Missy doubled over, hands on her stomach. “AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Teiree was just as confused to see her older sister there. The last time she had seen her, Maisee wasn't doing very well. Teiree turned to Freya and saw the grin still on her face. If Freya brought her here, she must have a plan. Missy's laughter finally died down and she caught her breath. “What good are you?” Missy asked wiping a tear from her eye. “What good is a stupid Gula who had a complete mental breakdown when she failed to save her sis...” Suddenly, Maisee vanished from where she was standing and reappeared right next to Missy, shuriken at her throat. With a look of cruelty in her eyes, Maisee said, “finish that sentence, Maisee dares you.” “A..and what if I do?” asked Missy, clearly rattled.

Some one made a mistake, thought Ryeleigh to herself as she rolled to avoid an attack, then pumped a scatershot into her assailant. Someone made a BIG damned mistake. ***** The mission had gone bad almost from the very start. It was only supposed to be low level grunts setting up camps and supply depots. Ryeleigh, Felishia, and Etialle were just supposed to be checking things out. Drop a bombardment on a collection of tents here, destroy a cache of supplies there. Easy. For the first couple of encampments, everything had gone by the book. They got the intel they needed and sowed a little chaos along the way. But when they got to the third camp is when things took a turn. They had just finished scouting the camp out and were just getting ready to make a fairly large stash of supplies go boom when the trap got sprung. It was like the enemy appeared out of thin air. It wasn't just the expected weaklings either, the BAMs that showed up were as strong as anything they had faced

It had been a while since the last time Teiree had been to Allemantheia and she was happy for the opportunity to appreciate its beauty again. As she and Temprance made their way through the city there was a constant stream of new details that caught Teiree's eye. The city was unique in all of Arborea and Teiree knew she could easily lose herself and spend days studying the architecture without even scratching the surface. Unfortunately, she and Temprance were not in Allemantheia to see the sights; this was strictly a business trip. The two of them had been summoned to Allemanteia HQ to see Freya. While Temprance and Teiree were personally acquainted with the High Elf Commander and had worked with her in years past, to receive a personal summons from her was quite unusual. As Teiree was making a mental note to come back to Allemantheia the next time she had leave and wondered if Temprance would want to come with her, the two of them arrived at the entrance to HQ. Teiree made to

And there goes the baker, thought Maisee to herself as the baker walked by on the street below to her left. She switched her gaze over her right shoulder, and in a bout five minutes the armourer's apprentice will be heading up the street from over there. Everything was right on schedule. Village life in Popolion was pretty routine. If Maisee hadn't known better, she wouldn't have been able to tell the town was under siege. But under siege it was. Technically Maisee was supposed to be protecting the town – that was the assignment she had been given after she'd been removed from Ryeleigh's unit – but there really wasn't a whole lot for her to do. The town guards were more than capable of dealing with any threats that approached the town. Which was exactly why you'd never be able to tell Popolion was a town under siege; life inside Popolion's walls carried on just like it always had. This is also why Maisee had nothing to do. The guards handled everything so Maisee spent most of her

Ryeleigh opened the door to Maisee's hospital room and stepped inside. She saw Maisee strapped down to her bed, sleeping. She turned to close the door behind her and when she turned back Maisee's eyes were open, glaring at Ryeleigh. "You're awake," remarked Ryeleigh. Maisee continued her glare for a moment then turned her gaze to the ceiling, no longer acknowledging Ryeleigh. "The doctor said there shouldn't be any lingering affects from Felishia's kick," Ryeleigh tried. Still nothing from Maisee. Ryeleigh decided to just get to the point of why she was there. "I have some good news," she began. "It should make you feel better." Just then there was a knock at the door. "Right on cue." Ryeleigh opened the door and Teiree stepped in. "Teiree!" shouted Maisee, trying to sit up against her restraints. "Y..you're okay. M..Maisee is sorry. Maisee tried to be there, but..." and Maisee started struggling against the restraints, "...but they wouldn't let Maisee go." As Teiree

Ryeleigh couldn't believe what she was reading. She looked up and across the table at Felishia who was returning her shocked look having just read the same thing Ryeleigh had. "How could this have happened to Pora Elinu?" she asked, knowing full well Felishia could have no answers. "I don't know," was all the quiet woman replied. Ryeleigh went back to reading the news briefing. She quickly skimmed the main part of the article – knowing the damage to Pora Elinu was unprecedented was enough – and focused on the part she was looking for; the casualty report. The number of dead was staggering. Then she found it: Lady Aneha's name. Followed by a long list of names of the members of Maisee's family. Oh no... Ryeleigh looked up to Felishia again and noticed tears building at the corners of her eyes. She felt tears trickle down her own cheeks as well. "How are we going to tell Maisee?" asked Felishia. There weren't a lot of people in the mess hall yet this early in the morning so the

When Snow Hare came to, all he could see around him were smoke and flames. "W..what happened..." he mumbled barely coherently. He gave his head a little shake to try and clear the fog that was pervading his mind and immediately regretted it. Well that hurts, he thought as he closed his eyes as tight as he could in an effort to make the throbbing in his head go away. It helped a little and he slowly opened his eyes with more focus and was able to better take in his surroundings. Everywhere he looked, the manor was on fire. But how had it gotten that way? He still couldn't remember what had occurred before he woke up much less what caused him to lose consciousness in the first place. After some moments of concentration, there was.. an explosion? he thought. Yes, an explosions. But what was I doing when the explosion happened? Snow Hare slowly began to put things back together. I was with Lady Aneha at the meeting of nobles... and then... he almost had it. It was like the memories

As Maisee dismounted from the pegasus she couldn't help but stare on in awe. In fact, she had been staring with her jaw agape for the entire approach to the city. Nothing she had experienced in Pora Elinu could have prepared her for the iron fortress of a city that was Kaiator. "...miss?" Maisee was so distracted staring at everything around her that it took her a minute to realize someone was trying to get her attention. As she turned toward the speaker, she couldn't help but jump a little at the sight of the Amani speaking to her. So big! While Maisee might be big for an Elin, she was well aware that she would be smaller than adults from most other races. Teiree's Castanic friend Temprance and her mother Raphaela came to mind though Maisee was to understand that the two of them were also quite tall for their race and a lot of Castanic women were closer to Maisee in height. Other than the two of them, Maisee really didn't have any first hand experience dealing with other races

Teiree was walking down the west corridor of the family manor, taking in some of the new art pieces that had only recently been added. She wasn't particularly knowledgeable when it came to art, but was trying to develop an appreciation for it; one of her favourite lecturers at school liked to talk about it and made it out to sound quite interesting. Teiree knew there were some things she thought looked pretty, and others she didn't, but she was struggling to find a “deeper appreciation” for any given piece. One of the new pieces in particular caught her attention. It was... she really wasn't sure what it was, but it had a certain elegance to it that she found appealing. Just as she thought she was finally starting to understand where her lecturer was coming from, a small rabbit came scurrying around the corner as fast as its small legs would carry it. “sn..snow hare?” stammered out Teiree as the rabbit quickly dashed towards her, darting under her dress before coming to a